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From the back cover: Massive computer malfunctions are plaguing the Enterprise when Kirk suddenly receives a shocking message from Starfleet Command: Centaurus has been bombed and annihilated; thousands are dead. Give whatever help you can. Centaurus is a beautiful, peaceful planet, home to many humans - including McCoy's daughter Joanna.

The crew risks beaming down to investigate. But Kirk is thrown into a deadly struggle between violent enemy terrorists and vengeful Centaurians. Now Lt. Uhura, left alone in command, must jeopardize the crippled Enterprise to save Centaurus, Kirk - and Joanna McCoy!

When Kirk was a twenty-two-year-old ensign on the USS Farragut, his leg was severely injured in a battle with the pirates of Epsilon Canaris III. On Starbase 7 Dr. Leonard McCoy oversaw the repair of the leg and Kirk's grueling physical therapy; the two men became friends. Before Kirk returned to the Farragut, McCoy took him to Centaurus to meet Joanna, then a child living with her aunt and uncle. Kirk bought a valley on the planet, which he later named Garrovick Valley after the Farragut's captain.

At a senior staff briefing, Dr. M'Benga expresses concern about the ship's ability to aid the disaster victims adequately. Spock deduces that the explosion cannot have been accidental, and that weapons of mass destruction are apparently in the hands of a non-military force. Spock subsequently discovers that the Enterprise computers have been disabled beyond repair due to a mysterious series of small circular holes drilled through the computer banks.

Captain's log, stardate 7513.9: We are finally nearing the Alpha Centauri star system -- and apparently just in the nick of time...

As the Enterprise approaches Centaurus, the warp engines burn out, leaving the ship on impulse power only. Uhura picks up a code seven-ten message from the planet, warning ships not to approach. Spock detects the wreckage of three Earth medical ships scheduled to arrive before the Enterprise in orbit about Centaurus. As the Enterprise enters planetary orbit, Kirk is again urged not to approach by Henry Erikkson, president pro tem of Centaurus. The Enterprise is then engulfed by a massive explosion.

In the resort town of Gregory's Landing, thousands of kilometers west of New Athens, a group of five men headed by Reuben Barclay follow news accounts of the events. Barclay sends two of the men, Max and Dave, to find another man in the interim capital of McIverton and convince him to meet with the group, or else kill him.

The Enterprise has survived the explosion due to its shields. Kirk is again contacted by acting President Erikkson, who explains that the planetary defense system, controlled from the Defense Center complex near New Athens, has malfunctioned since the antimatter explosion and is targeting all vessels that approach Centaurus as enemies. With the Enterprise transporters out, Kirk decides, despite the risk involved, to send two landing parties to the planet in shuttlecraft. A party led by Spock will travel to the Defense Center to get its computers to shut down, while a party led by Kirk will go to McIverton to meet with the interim government.

Captain's log, stardate 7514.1. This is Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, in temporary command of the -- oh, strike that. This is Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, communications officer, recording: We are maintaining standard orbit around Centaurus...

The two shuttlecraft, piloted by Hikaru Sulu and Pavel Chekov, successfully maneuver to avoid the missile launched at them from the Defense Center; the Enterprise then destroys the missile. Spock and his team fly over the devastation of New Athens before reaching the Defense Center, where they enter the underground facility. Kirk's shuttlecraft is escorted to McIverton by jet aircraft; on landing, Kirk's party is met by chief of protocol Thaddeus Hayes, to whom Kirk introduces Sulu as his confidential aide. Spock's party finds no survivors at the Defense Center, where the personnel were all killed by radiation. The computers refuse to stand down in response to the commands given by Spock and the two computer technicians on his team, Rawlings and Hudson.

In Gregory's Landing, Barclay and his two companions have moved to a new hideout; Max and Dave have successfully met with their target individual. Barclay has learned from a news report that Kirk, who knows the man in question, is conferring with the president. Kirk and Sulu meet with President Erikkson, who introduces them to Daniel Perez, the Minister of Defense, and Nathaniel Burke, the Minister of Internal Security. Erikkson, Perez and Burke all lost their wives and children in New Athens. Erikkson tells Kirk that the explosion was the work of the League for a Pure Humanity, a racist and anti-alien organization headed by Isidore Holtzman. Holtzman, widely regarded as a crackpot, had threatened to destroy New Athens if members of the League were not granted political positions in one month. The explosion took place an hour after Holtzman's deadline. Sulu gives Burke a list of Enterprise crew members with relatives on Centaurus. After Burke leaves with the list, Spock calls Erikkson's office on the hotline from the Defense Center and proposes a radical means of solving the problem with the defense system. Erikkson and Perez reluctantly approve Spock's plan.

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